Category Archives: RISK

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Your personal information is one of your most valuable assets. Being able to get to your critical information may save your life. Or a loved ones. Earlier this week I described and defined a comprehensive safe backup and archive routine. See: Continue reading →

Better reassess your Cloud Storage SkyDrive strategy with Microsoft. Microsoft Online Division (Meaning Cloud Computing, including their Cloud Storage SkyDrive business.) is losing money hand over fist. This is not a sustainable business model. In an article by Jay Yarow posted on Business Insider today 7-2-12, it states a bleak prospect for Microsoft’s Online Division.

How long will the Microsoft Board of Directors tolerate this kind of financial performance for this Division? Something has to give. The question is – What?

Steve Ballmer

You as an individual need to make many difficult decisions in your life. Some are pretty obvious. There will be change in the Cloud Computing Group at Microsoft. Your data is at risk. In 2009 Yahoo closed it’s “Briefcase” Cloud Storage offering. Apple, just closed it’s MobileMe Cloud Storage offering (2012) and replaced it with iCloud, BUT DID NOT OFFER to move your data. You need to do that yourself. If you can figure it out yourself.

The financials at Microsoft’s OnLine Division do not bode well for consistency and sustainability of this offering.

Call to Action: Control your own destiny. Manage your data locally by having a local copy of all of your data, with an archived copy in a safe remote place. Then and only then use Cloud based Storage Service offerings. This cannot be more clear to me. Our information as individuals is at risk. Is it clear to you? I hope so. Please note, I am not saying do not use these services. I am saying make them a “Part of your strategy” not your entire strategy.

Google is about to announce the specifics of their increased on-line storage capabilities. Microsoft is pushing their online storage for individuals and Small and Mid size business. Proceed with caution. Here’s why… Continue reading →

I am an expert in Personal Information Management – PIM. The risks associated with BYOD are great. AND surprise… the risks go both ways.

RISKS to the Enterprise:
1.) Security Breaches.
2.) Bots, Bugs, Trojan Horses, Malware, etc.. Does the Iranian Centrifuge incident ring a bell? Extreme example to be sure, but corporate sabotage is a very real threat.
3.) Corporate embarrassment. An employee has illegal content (Pornography, Corporate secrets of another firm.) on their device. The device is confiscated for legal purposes, discovery in a court case for example. This could be made public.
4.) Very real “opportunity loss” scenario: A sales Rep is using their iPad 3 while they are on a Sales Call at HP, Dell, Samsung, Google or any competitor with a tablet offering. Same for the phone they use. You could very easily lose the opportunity and never know why.
5.) Loss of productivity. Depending on the applications involved, not all applications may be usable on all devices. iOS cannot and will not read Flash is a good example. A corporations training videos, and or demonstration materials are in flash. Won’t work in the Apple world.
6.) Cost associated with potentially needing to re-write code into HTML-5 a platform agnostic platform.
7.) Support issues, and costs to support multiple platforms. May need to invest in several platforms in order to be able to replicate the problem in order to rectify it.

RISKS to the Employee:
See: http://pimcoach.com/predictions-by-2013-80-of-businesses-will-support-workers-using-tablets-personal-information-pim-ramifications/
1.) Personal devices will undoubtedly contain business information, making them eligible to be ceased in the case of a law suit. Discovery will mandate either temporarily or permanently confiscating the device for forensic purposes.
2.) The replacement of the device at issue may not be reimbursed by the company.
3.) You will undoubtedly have very personal information on your device. If it is confiscated, that information becomes of a public nature at the whim of the legal system.
4.) If the primary use of the personal device is of a business nature, and it is lost or stolen, the firm may not reimburse you for it.
5.) Backing up the information of your personal device will undoubtedly involve some business information. It is very difficult not to mix and segregate personal and business information. So, it follows that you may have business information on your back-up systems. This puts those systems at risk of confiscation in the case of litigation and discovery as addressed in #1.
6.) You as an individual get let go. The corporation, or Agency knows you have sensitive information on your phone, notebook, PC and or tablet. IF the information is of a very sensitive nature, and it is critical to Homeland Security, or a State or Federal Agency, it may be confiscated on the spot. Then you are on the street with no tools. When was the last time you backed up all your systems? And put the information in a “Safe Place”? You will never get those back!!
7.) Use all front end security measures to secure your devices. You do not want to be the individual that carries in the Trojan horse virus. It happened at Sun Microsystems in about the year 2001. And the “Executive” got called on the carpet in front of approximately 9,000 employees for it.

CALL TO ACTION: Mitigate the risk:
Keep personal and business devices separate. Make sure you have a reasonable business and personal backup strategy. Execute that strategy on a regular basis. Have specific Corporate Policy that details what the “Exit” strategy is for employees BYOD tools. Always use security measures on your personal devices. The first thing you see when you pick up your phone or tablet… should be a screen that asks for a security code!!

Disk Drive Shortages hit home. In November 2011 there were major floods in Thailand that effected the Information industry in profound ways. The Disk manufacturing plants of the worlds largest manufactures suffered widespread damage.

http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/5/2540403/thailand-flood-disaster

The results are far reaching as it relates to Personal Information Management and Continue reading →